Aracnophoria

This lady is an appropriately named Black and Yellow Garden Spider. I think I found one outside the front door about this time last year. This year she’s inside the screen door. I think they like the ivy.

I know this is a female since the males are significantly smaller (less than a centimeter, usually) and have more muted colours. However, it’s very likely there is a male around. These spiders make really nice spherical webs, and the males come in and make the messy zigzags all over the place.

Here is a picture of one next to a quarter for scale. As you can see, Ms. Spider wins for size, but the quarter wins for shiny.